Hunt: Put us down for a win

Stephen Hunt is hoping that Reading can rediscover their winning mentality now they are back in the Championship.

Steve Coppell’s men won the Championship title in record-breaking style in 2006 by accumulating 106 points.

The club lost just two league matches all season and went 33 matches without defeat.

Despite an impressive first-ever season in the Premier League, Royals found things a lot tougher last time around and lost their top-flight status on the last day of the season despite winning 4-0 at Derby.

But Hunt is hoping the club can bounce back at the first time of asking.

He told readingfc.co.uk: “It (relegation) is obviously a massive disappointment and the first thing I wanted was to go back to Ireland.

“I haven’t had much time to focus on it with the Ireland games. It’s just all so frustrating.

“Maybe being in the Championship gives us the chance to get a winning mentality back.

“We just have to get on with it. There’s nothing we can do about it now.

“The Championship is a tough league and it won’t be easy to bounce straight back, but we should feel confident that we have the ability to do that.

“Hopefully once we get back for pre-season training we’ll be headed in the right direction and things will look much better for us.”

Hunt, a £5million target of Sunderland boss Roy Keane in January, is currently on international duty at a training camp on the Algrave in Portugal.